cherie writes: Rennie, Anne, Greg and I just sailed to the most difficult National Park to get to in the USA. Why is it so hard to get to the Dry Tortugas National Park? There are no roads and it’s too far to swim!

Garden Key (one of the Dry Tortugas) houses one of America’s most pristine living reefs and America’s largest coastal fort. Construction of Fort Jefferson began in 1846 and was never completed. Now Fort Jefferson is a brick relic, made obsolete by the invention of the rifled cannon. But in its day, the fort’s cannon’s could hurl shot 3 miles out to sea.

Fort Jefferson is located on Garden Key, 70 miles west of Key West. Seven islands make up the Dry Tortugas, which Ponce de Leon discovered and named in 1513 (because of abundance of sea turtles in the area.) Since then, the islands have been a haven for pirates and drug runners, and an inspiration for writers like Ernest Hemmingway and Cherie Sogsti (ha ha!) The most famous prisoner on the Garden Key was Dr. Samuel Mudd, during the Civil War.